Church leader in panic found wanting (6)
I believe the answer is:
scarce
'wanting' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'church leader in panic' is the wordplay.
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'panic' becomes 'scare' (synonyms).
The initial letter of 'church' is 'c'.
'c' going within 'scare' is 'SCARCE'.
'found' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for scarce that I've seen before include "exceptional" , "Hardly" , "Insufficient to meet demand" , "Wanting" , "Not plentiful, in short supply" .)